Bonding Day
by Runner of Sorts
Summary: Camp Half-Blood's first Bonding Day. A day where the Olympians come down from Olympus (or up from the Underworld) and, well, bond with their kids. It can't be that bad. Right? Wrong.


**AN: **I found this tumblr post and was inspired...

* * *

I just really like to imagine some sort of "Bonding day" at Camp Half-Blood where the gods come down to spend the day with their children  
and like, it's so, so awkward  
Ares kids are pretending they aren't s***-scared of their father  
Athena not really knowing how to be affectionate towards her children and so they just sit there in silence  
Hephaestus ignoring his children and tinkering with a piece of metal  
Demeter's kids are getting lectured about cereal and are probably more scared of their mother than the Ares kids are of their father  
And so dinner is tense and awkward and the cabins are all quiet and the gods don't know what to say  
and then, in the corner, you hear this laughter coming from Cabin Three's table.  
Poseidon and Percy are completely at ease with each other, laughing and joking around and quite possibly about to start a food fight  
and it's_ a beAUTIFUL PICTURE OK DON'T JUDGE MY CHOICES_

* * *

"Alright, heroes, be prepared," Chiron, the activities director, said from his spot at the front of the pavilion, "tomorrow is Bonding Day. Your parents will come here and you will spend the day with them. Remember: _have fun_."

* * *

The Olympians arrived after lunch.

Ares burst into Cabin Five. "Alright! You ready, because I am! Move!"

They acted like they didn't care; they acted like they weren't scared of their dad. But they were. Ares made them work. Running first thing, exercising, arena. It was intense. "Hurry up! You've gotten point four seconds slower! Run, soldier, run!"

Athena knocked on her children's door. "Hello?"

Annabeth opened the door. "Hi, Mom. Um… come in."

She nodded and stepped inside to have all eyes land on her, every single pair. "So how's your time been?" No one answered. Athena smiled and sat down on her youngest daughter's bunk. The girl squeaked and scrambled to sit back, away from her mother. _Am I really that intimidating? _

No one made a sound. Athena would watch them just like they watched her. It was very tense and awkward. Athena was never very affectionate for her children, she loved them, yes, but she didn't really show affection. A blessing here, a weapon there. Mainly little things like that. But no affection. She didn't really know how to be affectionate. She gave in and allowed them to stay like that, stuck in silence.

Hephaestus clanked into the forges, knowing his kids would be there. They were. Each and every one of them clanked on a piece of metal. Finally, Nyssa looked up. "Oh. Hello, Dad?"

He nodded and noticed the piece she was working on. It was a sword. That reminded him… He shuffled over to an empty crafting area and began to work. No one stopped him. They just watched in an onslaught of silence until they realized their father would most likely never acknowledge them, making them begin their work once more.

Demeter barged into Cabin Four. "Okay! Who didn't eat their cereal this morning?"

A stunned silence followed suit before a few of her children raised their hands. She shook her head in disappointment. "Everyone, sit down. Let me tell you about the importance of your cereal…"

The cabin moved to sit in front of her or on surrounding bunks. **(****AN: **Be prepared for a true lecture on cereal... :)**)**

"In almost every country and region, cereals provide the staple food. In the world as a whole, only 5% of starchy staple food comes from root crops (mainly cassava, potato, and yams, depending on climate), whereas the rest is from cereal. There is a greater dependence in roots in the developing economies, where the average figure for roots is 10%.

Cereal grains contain 60% to 70% starch and are excellent energy rich foods for humans. Doctors recommend cereals as the first food to be added to infant diets and evidence from research upholds that healthy diet for adults should have most of its calories in the form of complex carbohydrate such as cereal starch…"

It went on like that. Or at least, before she began screaming at them as to why they should always eat their cereal no matter what and sent death glares at all of them. Especially the ones who didn't eat their cereal. They were most definitely more scared of their mother than the god of war himself.

* * *

It was finally time for dinner.

The Athena cabin came first and sat down, carrying on with their silence.

Then the Ares cabin came in, tired and hungry, also silent.

Demeter and her children shuffled in and sat down.

Hephaestus and his kids brought their little scraps of metal with them and messed with them, but other than that, it was silent.

The only thing that broke it was laughter coming from Cabin Three's table. Everyone's heads turned in that direction.

Percy was smiling smugly as Poseidon laughed. "And that is why I was officially banned from the zoo," Percy concluded. Poseidon began to laugh some more.

"Y-you were ba-banned from the zoo!?" he chuckled. "There goes your birthday present!"

Percy's smile faded. "But I like the zoo!"

His dad hit his shoulder. "Tough luck."

Percy's eyes flitted to his plate of food before going back to Poseidon. His hand slowly crept towards the plate. He was going to get to go to the zoo one way or another…

* * *

**AN: **They have such a good father-son relationship... *sigh* It's beautiful.


End file.
